Tag: creating

Posted in Writing, Writing Prompts

Writing Prompt -Summons

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

You attempt to pronounce some of the furniture names at IKEA. In doing so, you’ve summoned a demon.

A strange smell wafted from behind me. Wrinkling my nose, I turned around looking for an outbreak of fire. But there was no fire.

Instead, I found a small boy. He had khaki shorts and a blue t-shirt. He looked around eight years old? I wasn’t good with guessing age but he couldn’t be too old. With a frown on his face, he looked around the bedroom display area.

“Hey, there,” I called out. “Are you lost? Do you need help looking for your parents?”

The boy finally looked at me. Dark red eyes narrowed.

“You summoned me?”

Wow. Deep voice. He must be hitting puberty early. Was that normal? Then again, the size of kids these days – well, they were growing rapidly. People still mistook me as someone in middle school.

I looked around, hoping to flag an associate down but I didn’t see anyone. Great.

“Um, so, I can take you to the check-out area. They got these things that announce information throughout the store. They can help you find your parents.” I added a smile for a good measure.

“So, you’re deaf and dumb.”

My eye twitched. This – this – okay, let’s take a deep breath. I forced a smile.

“Do you need help?” I asked.

He crossed his arms. “I’d say you need help. That is why you’ve summoned me, yes?”

“Summoned?”

The boy sighed. His foot began to tap. “Yes, summoned.”

“Uh huh.”

I opened my mouth and closed it. Right, I wasn’t getting through to him.

“Let’s take a step back. What’s your name?”

The stare was back. “You’ve summoned me and yet you do not know.” His eyes glowed. “Tell me what you need so I can return to my own world.”

I took a step back. My foot stuck the bottom of the bed. I teetered for a moment before regaining my balance. He was something else entirely. It had to be a trick of the light.

“Listen, let’s go find your parents. They’re really worried right now.”

“I’m a thousand year old demon,” the boy intoned. “I have no parents.”

This wasn’t working. I chewed on my lip.

“Okay,” I said, slowly. “So, let’s make a deal.”

His eyes lit up. “Finally.”

“Help me, help you find your parents.”

The boy sighed. He shook his head muttering in a weird language.

“I am a demon. You summoned me. Tell me what you want.”

I frowned. “No, I didn’t.”

“Yes you did.”

“I already told you!”

“Fine. I’m leaving.”

He clapped his hands once, but nothing happened. He sighed. We stared at each other for a moment.

“Fine,” he finally said, “let’s go.”

We were finally getting somewhere. I cleared my throat. “Well, the check-out is downstairs.”

“Just, just lead the way.”

I started walking towards the stairs. I kept looking over my shoulder to make sure he was still there. He kept muttering to himself in that strange language. I couldn’t place it at all. Maybe Google translate could help.

At the thought, I shook my head. I could only imagine how that would go. No, the best thing was to find this “demon’s” parents.

Posted in NaNoWriMo, Writing

Fixing Details

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

Spring Break has been, for all intents and purposes, very productive for me. During one of my rereads of Clan of Ash, I discovered a slight plot hole. It’s not really a plot hole. It’s more like the suspension of disbelief would have been stretched very far. And I like to avoid that.

Fixing this wasn’t too hard. I was able to make some dialogue changes. Some scenes had to be reworked but all in all, it went well. I still have to rewrite an entire scene though and make a few modifications down the road. Luckily, I printed out the manuscript and made some notes for me. I find easier to edit on paper as oppose to editing on my computer. I don’t have to scroll too much. Plus it’s easy for me to organize everything.

One thing I will say about organization is that I have yet to try Scrivener. As some might recall, I mentioned that as one of the winner of NaNoWriMo last November we got some goodies. One of those goodies involved a coupon of sorts for Scrivener. I plan to put this to use for Camp NaNoWriMo in April.

I’m looking forward to the experience and how it’ll effect my work from now. It should be interesting.

Posted in NaNoWriMo, updates, Writing

The Half Way Point

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

We’re a bit past half through November and let’s not mention the lack of winter in Texas. The important thing to remember is that NaNoWriMo is half way done . . . and that is terrifying.

While I have reached my daily goal since day one, I find my story to be lacking. While I have the overall story planned, all the bits in between aren’t exactly there.

I’ve always been someone who plans some of the story before writing and someone who makes things up along the way. The problem with that is I underestimated the second book in the series. While Clan of Blood is its own book, it’s also part of a larger story. This is why I feel I should have planned out the story a bit more.

Now, there’s no use in regretting what wasn’t done. That’s not going to get me anywhere. It’s definitely a lesson I’ve learned.

As of now, the middle is slowing me down. I’m not bored, not at all, but I don’t know how to continue the main story. The subplots are there but I don’t want to derail the story and focus only on the subplots. Even though I know that subplots should feed into the main story, and I know how the subplots in Clan of Blood connect to everything else, for some reason, I’m having trouble putting it all in words. It’s like I forgot how to use words or something.

While my idea map has helped put everything into a diagram of sorts, I haven’t quite been able to plan ahead. I’m probably making this into a big deal because the editing part of my brain isn’t quite shut off. However, in the long run, it’ll be good for me to be aware that a lot of the story has to change in the edit. Clan of Ash, the first book, went through tons of edits too but unlike that time, there wasn’t a lot of pressure. Now, I feel like there is.

But it’s not like I can quit. I don’t want all that work and effort to go to waste. Plus, I need to write the second book. I love the story and the characters. I’m just afraid that I won’t do them justice. It’s just one of the many fears I have when it comes to writing in general. The idea seems so cool but the execution isn’t all there.

There’s so much doubt but I know I can get through this. I’ve struggled before and pulled through. For the moment, I’ll focus more on the scenes than the story as a whole. I won’t be abandoning the story. I’ll concentrate on the smaller parts that make up the story and try to connect them. Writing this, the ending is becoming a bit clearer. However, I don’t think that I’ll be able to fully finish the story in just 50k words.

As I type this post, the idea of just skipping everything and focusing on the main points seems better and better. If it comes down to it, I might just take that route. Or, I might not. It depends on how far I can go with what I have planned out.

*takes a deep breath* Don’t worry about being perfect. Just write.

Posted in NaNoWriMo, updates, Writing

Consequences and Plot

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

In my last post, I wrote about consequnces. In this post, I’ll expand on what I mean and what that means going forward with writing the second installment of the Half-Blood series.

I’d like to think that the ending of the first book set up the premise for the second book. Not only did an authority figure die, our heroes were saved – if you consider eternal servitude as saved. Nonetheless, their actions have drastically changed their lives and the lives of many more people. Their actions have consequences and I’m excited to write about those consequences.

Without giving too much away, a successor rises up to uncover the truth of his predecessor’s death and enact revenge if need be. He has a purpose and his investigation interrupts the main character’s lives. Now I have tension and conflict that I can build up through the story. Now, this isn’t the entire plot. This is a subplot that will run through the story.

The true plot of the story is to discover who’s behind a deadly virus infected certain people and finding a cure. For now, that’s what I’m going with. NaNoWriMo will give me the opportunity to play with this idea a bit more. Now, my main characters, Renelle and Alastair have to join forces again but they aren’t on friendly terms.

And all of this comes from all the events of the first book. Renelle saved Alastair and now they both serve the people who wanted to kill Alastair (that’s the shorten version). There’s a lot of bent-up feelings going around.

I plan to start the story by placing the characters in their new words. E.g. Renelle under servitude. The successor looking into his predecessor’s death. The term “domino effect” applies here perfectly. One action leads to an outcome and that to another so it’s all connected. You can’t really pinpoint where it all started. Because of the planning I did beforehand, this is all playing into a larger story arc that spans across the series. This is all leading towards the end.

While I forsee a lot of agony and frustration, I am excited to continue expanding the story and world that I have built.

Posted in NaNoWriMo, Writing

The Night Before

Posted on by Kassandra Carrillo

Camp NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow. I can’t believe June is already ending. Where did the time go? There’s a few things to know for the following month:

I won’t be creating a seperate blog for Camp NaNoWriMo. I’ll be updating the progress of the story here on the main one. I’m not sure if I’ll post everyday but that’s up in the air.

Secondly, I’ll also be collaborating on a story with my sister. We’ll be splitting the writing but I might write another story on the side so I can actually wriite 50,000 words in a month. For this month, it’s going to be, what I call, “the spirit of participation” because mostly I like to write an actual story for NaNoWriMo. 

It should be a good experiment. The most important goal for this month is to write. Sure I’ve been writing and editing here and there but I haven’t written as I should be. There’s really no excuse and it’s time for me to really get back on band wagon. This upcoming month should be good. 

On a side note: today I created a science fiction story about vampires. They’re more like genetically engineered creatures than the mythological ones. I made the entire back story of the world and it felt good. Sure, I don’t know every detail but at least it’s something. However, I won’t be writing this story just yet. 

For my side story, I’ll be working on my fantasy story that’s been begging for attention.

I see productivity for my future.